After years of limping along, America’s Birthday Celebration found a new infusion of enthusiasm this year that could be the start of something good for Staunton’s July 4th celebration.

Staunton, of course, was known for its Happy Birthday USA event headlined by hometown favorites The Statler Brothers. The event had a 25-year run that packed Gypsy Hill Park with fans from far and wide every Independence Day. The Statlers would bring with them their country music associates, such as Mel Tillis, Charley Pride and Johnny Cash.

Then, the Statlers ended their participation in the mid-1990s.

The intervening decades haven’t been kind or easy, despite efforts of a changing cast of dedicated volunteers.

At the July 4, 1978, "Happy Birthday U.S.A." concert in Gypsy Hill Park, Mayor Michael Kivlighan announced that Staunton's new inner loop would be known as Statler Boulevard. In this photo, bass singer Harold Reid holds up a Statler Blvd. road sign while fellow Statlers (from left) Phil Balsley, Don Reid and Lew Dewitt look on. Kivlighan is at far left. The celebration that year, which featured Johnny Rodriguez as special guest, drew 50,000 people from around the country.(Photo: Courtesy of Charles Culbertson)

At first, there was a Statler hangover — it just wasn’t what it used to be, and that took a while to sink in. Without out-of-towners and big-name stars, the committees had to calibrate festivities to what they perceived as attendees’ tastes and the organizers’ limited budget. Headliners were increasingly obscure. City money was withdrawn during tougher economic times. Fireworks were sometimes in doubt up until a final pass of the hat.

The actual event migrated from what used to be known as the fairgrounds to the more intimate surroundings of the park’s bandstand area. The road would be lined with the same vendors — often local charitable groups — for the July 4th parade, for the gospel singers of the “vespers” evening and the country or beach music of the actual July 4th event. It became a signature Staunton event that in many ways created a new image of Staunton as hosting charming, unhurried picnic beneath tall, shady trees.

Of course, some just looked back to the Statler era and pined for the past. We have a way of doing that in these parts, without realizing something new had been forged by the collective will of the community.

That didn’t come home until this year, when the bandstand stayed silent and the vendors abandoned the tree-lined park road to move back to the fairgrounds where a giant steel stage grew out of the asphalt for the weekend.

That big stage was a fitting venue for the successful July 4th debut of the Statler-sons’ band Wilson Fairchild. Thousands lined up their bag chairs on the asphalt parking lot to hear the return of full-throated country music to Staunton’s July 4th.

And fortunately for all, overcast sky and mild temperatures cooperated. Had it been a hot, sunny July 4, we might be writing now about how many people couldn’t tolerate the venue during daytime events.

The recent tradition of a community gathering around the iconic bandstand was lost.

We hope this year’s event is the start of a resurgence of America’s Birthday Celebration. We also hope that lessons learned in the lean years won’t be forgotten:

- There’s more to July 4th in the park than a big-name group, although it does give you momentum from which to work. Thanks to Wilson Fairchild for their contribution to bringing new, needed energy to the birthday celebration.

- A sense of community is created when we come together and feel like we’ve arrived home for the holiday. It was a success of the ABC committee in recent years, which capitalized on the homey surroundings of Gypsy Hill Park. We shouldn’t entirely abandon it. Maybe if the new momentum can continue, there’ll be enough activities to fill both spaces — a day venue at the bandstand and a headliner venue on the asphalt.

But, in any case, we can only offer these suggestions because the event not only survived another year, but has come through it with a stronger story to tell. Congratulations.